Alkylene carbonates are widely used in industry as solvents, heat carriers, plasticizers, monomers, and intermediate products in organic synthesis. Traditional methods of synthesis of alkylene carbonates (as well as of starting compounds) utilize toxic compounds (phosgene, alkylene oxides) and often require elevated pressure, which involves high operational risks. At present, much attention is given to phosgenefree syntheses of organic carbonates. For this purpose, new catalytic systems promoting reactions of alkylene oxides with carbon dioxide have been proposed, e.g., ionic liquids [1, 2], alkali metal chlorides in combination with macrocyclic chelating compounds [3], dibutyltin oxide and methoxide [4]. However, all these reactions occur under elevated pressure. Alternative procedures are based on reactions of diols with urea on heating to 170°C [5] in the presence of a mixture of metal acetates and alkoxides [6] and oxide catalysts [7] under excess pressure. Alkylene carbonates can also be prepared by transesterification with the corresponding diols of dialkyl carbonates synthesized by a phosgenefree procedure [8]. We now propose a new synthesis of alkylene carbonates from urea and alkylene glycols, which requires neither elevated pressure nor high temperature. The reactions are carried out in a two-phase system consisting of a ionic liquid and a chlorinated organic solvent. As ionic liquid we used a mixture of equimolar amounts of a metal chloride, urea, and glycol [9], which formed a colorless transparent solution on heating above 50°C. The yields attained 80%. The reactions were carried out with a number of glycols and metal chlorides. A mixture of 3.71 g (22.7 mmol) of zinc(II) chloride sesquihydrate ZnCl2 · 1.5 H2O, 1.36 g (22.7 mmol) ISSN 1070-4280, Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 12, pp. 1859–1860. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2013. Original Russian Text © V.A. Kuznetsov, M.G. Pervova, A.V. Pestov, 2013, published in Zhurnal Organicheskoi Khimii, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 12, pp. 1874–1875.